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cause this academy to be incorporated as a college, with the 

 power of conferring degrees.* There is not one good reason 

 ;why this should not be done, while there are many considera- 



should not be delayed.! 



The position which our academies assume to occupy is that 

 of a middle place between the primary schools and the col- 

 leges ; somewhat after the manner of the grammar schools in 

 Germany, or possibly they may have been thought to resem- 

 ble the English middle schools. The uses which they ought 

 to answer with us are these: to afford to one class of scholars, 

 who are here to complete their scholastic education, a grade of 

 instruction above that found in the common schools, and to act 

 as a preparatory school for another class who are to ascend to 

 the colleges. But the misfovtime is, that they have not con- 

 fined themselves to their legitimate sphere. They have been 

 extended in two directions ; upwards towards the colleges, and 

 downwards towards the common schools. Now I suppose it 

 to be practicable to divide our entire list of public academies 

 into two classes, and to arrange them so that one class, to the 

 number required to meet the proper demand, shall become 

 colleges in fact and in name, and the other class, so far as 

 they are fit to be sustained at all as academies, shall take their 

 proper stand between the common schools on the one side and 

 the colleges on the other. 



